Steven Spielberg to produce but not direct . . .

A Jurassic Park 4 project has been on again and off again throughout the long years since Jurassic Park III in 2001.

This week came the news that Rick Jaffa and  Amanda Silver who wrote the unexpectedly good Rise of the Planet of the Apes will write the screenplay for a fourth Jurassic Park movie to be produced by Steven Spielberg and Kennedy/Marshall’s Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall for Universal.

Word has it that Spielberg – busy on Robopocalypse which now has an April 25th, 2014 release date – won’t be directing this latest installment.

The original three films, based on novels by the late Michael Crichton, have made over $1.9 billion worldwide so it should come as no surprise that the franchise won’t stay extinct especially now that the series has crossed into the lucrative and haloed “nostalgia” territory. Believe it or not, but the original Jurassic Park movie turns 20 next year!